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September /October 2014 Volume 10 Issue 4 • www.2elearning.com

Cricket Wireless Sales Training

Goes TribalPg 18

(Left to right) Chip Ramsey, CEO, Intellum; (seated) Michelle Randolph, Director of Processes, Training, and Communication, Cricket Wireless; Tad Kozak, Sales Training Strategy Manager, Cricket Wireless ; (seated) David Dayton, Customer Support Training Strategy Manager, Cricket Wireless

pg 29

The 2014

Learning! 100Award Issue

el0914_CricketCover.indd 1 8/1/14 4:41 PM

18 September / October 2014 Elearning!

OR, HOW A SMALL TEAM DEALT

WITH QUADRUPLING ITS NUMBER OF

CORPORATE LEARNERS

BY LINDA GALLOWAY

AT&T closed on its acquisition of Leap Wireless, the parent of the Cricket Wire-less, on March 13, 2014. Te company’s intent was to merge Aio Wireless, AT&T’s prepaid wireless subsidiary, with Cricket Wireless, which at the time of acquisition had approximately 5 million customers.

A few days later, Randall Stephenson, AT&T chairman and CEO, stated that he wanted the acquisition to be “the fastest and most successful acquisition AT&T has ever done.” He set the goal of operating as one company within 60 days.

Tis story is about how a small team of training and communication professionals pulled of a massive merger training initia-tive that touched approximately 20,000 employees, contractors and third-party support personnel in less than two months.

Te initiative was built around many of the latest learning trends —social learning,

collaboration, performance support tools and ongoing reinforcements — as well as a solid understanding of the needs and interests of diverse learning audiences and a commitment to refect and reinforce the legacy Aio business culture.

DAVID MERGES WITH GOLIATH

“Te news of the potential Cricket acquisi-tion was a bit overwhelming, given that the company was many times bigger than Aio,” says Michelle Randolph, director of pro-cesses, training and communication for Aio Wireless and now Cricket Wireless. “Te frst thing we did was to sit down together as a team and look at our best practices. We talked about what could scale — and what couldn’t. We also spent a lot of time think-ing about what we might want to do difer-ently and better.”

Te Aio team came at the project with a very modern mindset, one that was fos-tered by AT&T. “When AT&T spun of Aio Wireless, it encouraged us to create a culture that was based on mobile access, emphasized self-serve learning, and sup-ported ongoing business change. AT&T

viewed Aio almost as a test lab, where new technologies and practices could be tried out,” says Randolph.

Consequently, according to Randolph, the Aio culture also accepted well-inten-tioned mistakes as a part of “selling fast.”

“We know that being wrong is part of the process. When we make a mistake, we quickly pivot,” she says.

Prior to the acquisition’s ofcial close, the team had limited information about Crick-et Wireless for planning. In any merger or acquisition transaction involving public companies, the SEC prohibits the sharing of operational details until the deal is fnal. “In order to get started on planning as soon as possible, we made many assumptions. It turned out that many of them were wrong, so of course, that set us back a little.”

Aside from the aggressive timeline, the team’s training and communication plan for the merger was infuenced by these pri-mary factors:>> Most Cricket employees work out of

small stores with only one or two co-workers at a time. Terefore, store reps have to be highly self-sufcient.

Cricket Wireless Sales Training

Goes Tribal

el0914_CoverStoryjrlg.indd 18 8/1/14 4:46 PM

Elearning! September / October 2014 19

(Left to right) Chip Ramsey, CEO, Intellum; Michelle Randolph, Director of Processes, Training

and Communication, Cricket Wireless; Tad Kozak, Sales Training Strategy Manager, Cricket

Wireless; David Dayton, Customer Support Training Strategy Manager, Cricket Wireless

el0914_CoverStoryjrlg.indd 19 8/1/14 4:46 PM

20 September / October 2014 Elearning!

upscalingtechnology

>> Cricket employees didn’t have corporate email addresses; in the store, most had access only to mobile phones.

>> Cricket store reps would be the merger’s primary “customer ambassadors.” Terefore, it was critical that they could positively present the acquisition’s bene-fts to customers, answer their questions fully, and handle required transactions smoothly.

>> Training had to be cost efcient. Cricket dealers would not be charged for any merger-related training.

>> Training also had to encompass approx-

imately 1,500 Cricket customer support representatives employed by multiple call center providers.

THE ROLE OF SOCIAL

NETWORKING

Since the subsidiary’s inception in 2013, Aio’s culture had always emphasized the importance of mobile technology as part of day-to-day business. Cheryl Milejczak, communications manager for Aio Wire-less and now Cricket Wireless, knew early on that she wanted to introduce a two-way communication channel into the company,

a channel that would allow people to ofer feedback, ask questions, and directly help co-workers.

Milejczak and the Aio team evaluated several networking options. Critical re-quirements included Android compatibil-ity, excellent support, cost efciency and an easy-to-use, familiar interface. Employees also wouldn’t need an email address in or-der to use the tool.

In November 2013, the Aio team launched a pilot of Shout!, a social net-working tool based on Intellum’s Tribe ofering. Shout! was launched enterprise-wide in January 2014. Te team used it for a variety of feld-related communications, from breaking news on network outages to product updates and sales promotions. Employees were encouraged to use it to ask questions and to share helpful hints and re-sources that colleagues would fnd helpful.

Milejczak admits she was a little nervous prior to the network’s launch: “I was pretty sure our employees would use the network in a professional way while still having fun. But, we didn’t know for sure. Also, I wasn’t sure my team would be able to support the volume of trafc.”

As it turned out, the adoption of Shout! went very smoothly.

Te positive Aio rollout gave the team confdence to make Shout! an integral part of the Cricket merger initiative. Cricket employees and other personnel involved in the merger were given access to it almost immediately afer the acquisition.

“Because Cricket dealer employees had no way to receive direct company commu-nications before, Shout! was immediately seen as a positive resource,” says Milejczak.

“Usage exploded. Shout! lets us push out important communications and materials to all employees in the feld. It’s immediate; there’s no delay and no risk of the informa-tion being fltered or perhaps not delivered at all,” Milejczak continues. “Plus, it gives employees a way to ask questions and pro-vide feedback, which is especially impor-tant for remote workers.” When the team has an important message that needs to be highlighted for a period of time, a “sticky note” can be pinned to the top of conversa-tion for as long as needed.

As part of the merger initiative, Shout! tribes were set up for Cricket store reps, third-party customer support personnel,

Cheryl Milejczak, Communications Manager, Cricket Wireless

el0914_CoverStoryjrlg.indd 20 8/1/14 4:46 PM

Elearning! September / October 2014 21

training contractors, managers and other groups in order to customize communica-tions and encourage collaborations among diferent audiences. Most of these remain active and widely used for ongoing com-munications, information sharing and team collaboration.

Some tribes were global and open to anyone involved in the merger. For in-stance, the “Launch Q&A” tribe was cre-ated to specifcally address questions and answers related to the launch of the “New Cricket.” Tis tribe was monitored from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. ET for approximately 60 days following the acquisition close. While the Aio team members had overall responsibility to ensure questions were answered, very ofen Cricket and Aio em-ployees would jump into conversations to help their colleagues. In fact, Milejczak says that this tribe largely became self-sufcient within a few weeks.

Today, approximately 20,000 people are members of various tribes on Cricket’s Shout! social network. It has emerged to be an essential communication and collabora-tion tool for Cricket’s diverse and distrib-uted workforce.

TRAINING FOR QUICK SUCCESS

Te Aio team identifed fve primary audi-ences for merger-related training: employ-ees of company-owned stores, employees of dealer-owned stores, Cricket customer support reps, Aio customer support reps, and other Aio employees. Tad Kozak, sales training strategy manager, and David Day-ton, customer support training strategy manager, recognized immediately that the only way to approach the training initiative was by developing core content, tools, and resources that could then be easily custom-ized to meet the needs and interests of these diverse audiences.

The merger’s success largely rested on the shoulders of employees (the face of the new company) to present the benefits of the business change to millions of customers. Therefore, the merger train-ing had to help employees quickly get up to speed on the differences between the AT&T and Cricket networks, learn how to migrate customers from one network to the other, and handle all associated transactions. But, just as importantly, the training had to address questions

and concerns regarding the merger and introduce employees to the new company culture, inherited from Aio Wireless.

“Everyone on our team had been through multiple AT&T mergers before,” says Kozak. “We took lessons learned from each and combined them with new, mobile technologies to tackle this train-ing challenge.”

The team designed an aggressive, three-stage training strategy, which was presented to the Aio executive team prior to the acquisition close and to the Cricket executive team immediately after. After fine-tuning the content, the team tested the training with pilot audiences in early April. The merger training components, all of which were tailored to different au-diences, included:>> One day of instructor-led training fo-

cusing on the new Cricket brand and

culture. To supplement its small inter-nal instructor staf, Aio worked with an outside vendor to hire 38 contract instructors, many of whom were as-sociated with Wounded Warriors. “We wanted instructors who would really connect with our audiences and had the personal experience to present this change in a positive light,” says Qioni Green, associate director of training. To provide ongoing support to contract trainers, the team scheduled conference calls, set up a telephone help line, and created a Shout! tribe to reinforce key points, answer questions, and share best practices and successes.

>> A mobile performance support tool

designed primarily for employees to

use on the sales foor to rapidly access (within three clicks) the information and guidance needed to handle real-time customer questions and issues. Te tool provided high-level product and network information and step-by-step guidance for all major system transac-tions. Since the merger, this tool has been modifed and enhanced for use as an onboarding support tool.

>> A library of WBTs, simulations, and

detailed documentation covering compliance and privacy issues, network and device training, point of sale sys-tem guidance, and customer support. All of these detailed training resources are housed and managed in Cricket’s Knowledge Base (built on Intellum’s Exceed LMS technology). All content

Besides involving a brand change — Aio Wireless would take on the Cricket name — the

merger of Aio and Cricket would bring other major changes. Legacy Cricket customers

would transition to AT&T’s nationwide wireless network, which is built on international

GSM standards. This meant that Cricket stores would stop ofering CDMA devices

shortly after the acquisition and begin selling GSM devices. Store reps would also help

customers convert to the AT&T network. Therefore, Cricket store reps, as well as cus-

tomer support personnel, had to quickly acquire signifcant product, network, conver-

sion and transaction knowledge to support customers and answer their questions. Addi-

tionally, Aio employees needed to learn how to handle potential questions and requests

from Cricket customers that might come their way.

Prior to the acquisition, Aio Wireless, which AT&T launched in May 2013, operated ap-

proximately 600 retail stores with approximately 5,000 employees. Today, the combined

Cricket Wireless operates approximately 4,000 stores with 15,000 to 21,000 employees.

(Most Cricket stores are dealer operated; store workers are employed by the dealers,

not AT&T.)

MORE ABOUT THE MERGER

‘We took lessons

learned ... and

combined them

with new, mobile

technologies.’

—Tad Kozak

el0914_CoverStoryjrlg.indd 21 8/1/14 4:46 PM

22 September / October 2014 Elearning!

is also optimized for mobile access. During the merger initiative, employ-ees were directed to these resources through postings in Shout!, which is seamlessly integrated with the Cricket LMS. Employees could simply click on a link and they would be automatically directed to the appropriate resource in the Cricket Knowledge Base.

As the merger training rolled out, Aio team members closely monitored Shout! to see where training reinforcement might be needed. “Te postings and questions on social media gave us valuable insights. For instance, if we saw recurring questions re-garding a particular topic or issue, we could jump in and schedule an ad hoc webinar to provide more guidance,” says Dayton. “In my world, it’s common to look at metrics such as call durations, frst-call resolution, and overall satisfaction and indicators of training success. But Shout! was an excel-lent, real-time indicator of how the merger training was working.”

COLLABORATION

STARTS AT THE TOP

Randolph is quick to praise the team-work of all involved in the merger train-

ing. “We’re a small but mighty team,” she says. “Because we work so closely to-gether, we’ve never developed silos and we naturally keep each other informed and aligned.”

Interviews for this article surfaced many specifc examples of teamwork: taking turns monitoring Shout! during of hours

for urgent problems; proactively working together to ensure a product update is ac-curately refected in all training resources; collaborating to create content and tools that could be easily and efciently custom-ized for sales or customer support.

“Collaboration has to start at the top,” Randolph says. “You can’t expect employees to collaborate and support each other if you don’t set an example for them. We’re proud of contributing to the building camaraderie we’ve seen throughout Cricket nationwide over the last few months.”

—Linda Galloway is president of insidHR Communications.

upscalingtechnology

In the fall of 2013, Aio selected Intellum’s Tribe to use as a networking, information sharing

and communication tool for the enterprise. Tribe was rolled out in January 2014, just a few

short months before the announcement of the pending acquisition of Cricket Wireless.

With several months of experience under their belts, Randolph’s team had the conf-

dence to make Tribe (branded internally as Shout!) a critical component of the merger

training initiative.

Unlike other social tools, Tribe is built around activity streams, which capture posts as

well as documents, Web pages, videos, and other materials that Tribe members want to

share. A Pinterest-like view of all shared information, coupled with easy-to-use search

flters, makes searching for resources efcient.

Tribe members are invited to participate in a tribe; there are no following or ranking fea-

tures which prevents participation from turning into a popularity contest. Additionally, de-

tailed analytics that show trending topics, most active users, peak activity times and more

provide actionable insights. For instance, during the merger, the merger team monitored

questions and topics to identify ad hoc training needs that were covered in webinars.

Today, approximately 21,000 Cricket Wireless personnel — from in-store sales reps to

support reps to various management teams — use Tribe for ongoing collaboration and

communication.

TRIBE: SCALING TO MEET THE MERGER CHALLENGE

Qioni Green, Associate Director of Training, Cricket Wireless

‘You can’t expect employees to

collaborate and support each

other if you don’t set an example.’

—Michelle Randolph

el0914_CoverStoryjrlg.indd 22 8/1/14 4:47 PM